Intel releases first Meltdown-and-Spectre-proof CPUs

Intel has announced new CPUs that it says have mitigated some of the Meltdown and Spectre design flaws that expose users to information leakage attacks.

The company overnight refreshed its desktop, gaming and workstation product lines, but as the table below shows the new products don’t address all of the many variants on the Spectre and Meltdown flaws.

As ever, Intel says the new CPUs are faster than their predecessors and have been tuned for modern tasks like video rendering and will therefore delight end users if they can be bothered upgrading. Most can’t: Intel and Microsoft bemoan the fact that average PC refresh cycles have blown out beyond five years.

Intel hopes the new X-Series processors change that behavior, at least for creative types, by offering between eight and 18 cores, up to 68 PCIe lanes and caches up to 24.75 MB. Everyday clock speeds have reached 3.5GHz, with bursting to 4.5Ghz possible.

New ninth-generation silicon runs even faster: the new gaming flagship i9-9900K hums along at 3.6GHz and can TurboBoost to 5.0GHz to deliver 220 frames-per-second, for those who want their gaming experience to be especially vivid.

For more detailed information regarding the new CPU, please see. .itnews.com.au